During a radio interview last Thursday, NFL Media's Tom Pelissero casually raised a question about what the Minnesota Vikings will do with J.J. McCarthy if he doesn't win the team's starting quarterback job for the upcoming season, and he even mentioned the possibility of trading the third-year signal-caller elsewhere.
Probably just something that was totally random, right?
Well, in the days since this interview, the tone surrounding McCarthy has coincidentally shifted, and it has become much more positive, especially compared to the months right after the 2025 season when it felt like the Vikings were continually running him over with a steamroller.
We got the report from ESPN's Jeremy Fowler about McCarthy showing "some things this spring that have been impressive so far," former Minnesota receiver Adam Thielen pumping the young quarterback's tires on NFL Network's "Good Morning Football" on Monday, Kevin O'Connell expressing to ESPN's Lindsey Thiry that the Vikings are holding a "true quarterback competition," and Minnesota offensive coordinator Wes Phillips stating on Wednesday that McCarthy's growth this offseason has been a "continuous upward arrow."
Coincidence or the Vikings doing all they can to boost McCarthy's trade value to potentially send him to another team before Minnesota returns for training camp at the end of July?
The answer seems pretty obvious.
Minnesota Vikings doing everything they can to boost J.J. McCarthy's trade value before summer break
For those who don't agree, that's fine.
But we're really just going to sit here and believe that after most of the offseason was full of leaks and reports from the Vikings that treated McCarthy like a human piñata, all of a sudden they're very happy with all of the "progress" he's made?
Minnesota also went out and signed a Pro Bowl quarterback still in the prime of his NFL career in Kyler Murray earlier this year, and even reportedly told him they consider him a possible long-term option, because they wanted to stage a 100 percent legitimate quarterback competition this offseason too, right?
Guys, Murray and McCarthy have been getting about 12 reps each during OTAs and mini-camp this year, according to SKOR North's Judd Zulgad. There's really no way to tell whether either of them is leading the "competition," let alone making impressive improvements over what they did in 2025.
Let's throw out a totally hypothetical scenario here.
Let's say the first task that new Vikings general manager Nolan Teasley has been asked to complete is to find a way to part with McCarthy before training camp.
So, Pelissero is passed some information that he's told he can casually sprinkle into a conversation, and Minnesota spends the next week raving about how much the young quarterback has improved and how he's still very much in competition for the QB1 job with Murray.
This might sound crazy to some, but the Vikings didn't bring Murray in to compete for a job. He was going to be Minnesota's No. 1 quarterback next season from the second he signed his contract with the team in March, and the idea that he's in a competition with a quarterback who just had one of the worst seasons in recent NFL memory is laughable.
Perhaps the Vikings are unable to convince another team to trade for McCarthy before this summer's training camp. But make no mistake about it: Minnesota has spent the last week intentionally boosting his trade value, and it couldn't be more obvious.
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